Craving You (2020)

Watchable but not amazing

Although Taiwan is the probably one of the most progressive country when it comes to same-sex relationships, there have not been many BLs from Taiwan recently, compared with a more conservative country like Thailand. The last Taiwanese BLs I watched are the somewhat forgettable Because of You and Make Our Days Count (which is remembered for the poorly executed bad ending).

This BL is rather safe, story wise. We know whom we should ship and no one really expects a bad ending here. A pastry chef (Yi Fan) falls in love with a singer (Kai En) whom he collaborates with, and there is a subplot about Kai En's ex, Soda, who is about to marry his boyfriend (Noah).

Strangely, the story of Soda's past and his relationship with Noah is more interesting than the romance between Yi Fan and Kai En. It's not just a matter of personal preference here--the love between Yi Fan and Kai En is given a tad too little attention. Yi Fan quite suddenly professes his love for Kai En. Kai En has to make a decision as to whether to risk his career as a singer to be with Yi Fan--they key moment when the decision is revealed is barely shown. Yi Fan and Kai En are supposed to be the main couple, and they are given enough attention as individual characters, but the relationship between them almost seems to have been snipped by editors at some important moments (though this can't really be the case).

The acting of most of the main characters can be a little unnatural, which is understandable because most of them are inexperienced actors. Only David Chiu, who plays Yi Fan, has quite a bit of experience acting, and it shows. Yi Fan is someone who does not always say out what he is feeling, but David Chiu still manages to sufficiently convey his emotions.

The series is ok is almost every way and exceptional in no particular way, so the audience is going to neither very upset with it nor very impressed. It can be cliched in the way it portrays gay people's wish to be able to be treated like other ordinary people, but the delivery seems heartfelt.

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Meh

The first episode had excited me. Taiwan is known for making nice Bl’s so of course I was excited to see another one. But as the episodes went on I found the plot not interesting enough, the chemistry practically nonexistent and I just got bored. There was something missing in it, this one was just bland and it lacked that spark.

I understand it’s challenging to produce a drama with well fleshed out plot and real character growth when you’re making a 10 minutes episode drama, but past experience has shown us how cute and fluff can be done with such time limits. Maybe in a time before Because of You, Where Your Eyes Linger and Mr. Heart, this could have maybe, barely squeaked through as passable. But not now. Not when there are other dramas out there that has shown that they can produce good content with fluff or a little angst and with great chemistry can this be acceptable.

Great kiss scene though, but this is a Taiwanese BL, it can’t pass the test by just a kiss scene. That is at the very least one norm we have come to expect from it.

I really hope Taiwan steps up its game. A country that can produce contents like the HIStory franchise can do so much better than this. And I honestly like Taiwanese BL’s so I wish them luck.

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